Best Served Cold
by BeanNut
Summary: Magneto is up to his old tricks again, and this time he’s going all out. Reviews appreciated, but not necessary to keep the story going.


Inside a brightly lit room full of computers and several scientists, was a single guard. His name was Gary, and although the room he was guarding was very important, and that there were probably dozens of people willing to kill to get the information these computers held, he felt he was perfectly safe. There were enough guards, and enough high tech security to ensure that no one would ever get even close to accessing this room.  
  
On this particular day, Gary, sitting at his desk, flipping through a car magazine, was thinking about going home to his wife, having a nice hot dinner, and then going off to bed. He had no idea that his day was about to get a lot more complicated, and a lot less enjoyable, than he would have hoped.  
  
He looked up from his magazine at the many people at various computers working on this project. The government had unloaded a lot of money on it, and although Gary spent every day of the week in this room, he was not allowed to know just what kind of information he was guarding. He glanced down at the small pistol in a holster on his waist, and for a moment almost wished he could have the chance to use it, or even better, the chance to use the AK-47 that was kept under his desk for emergencies. Gary wished he could just once be a hero, just once save someone from something. But alas, it appeared that he would never have that opportunity.  
  
Then the door exploded.  
  
Gary jumped to his feet, pulling out his pistol and pointing it at the door. In the darkened hallway, just outside the hole that was once a door, stood the silhouettes of five people. The tallest of the stepped forward, and upon seeing his armored form, Gary knew who these five were. And worse yet, he knew there was nothing he could do to stop them. This was the mutant known as Colossus, and it could be safely assumed that the other four were the rest of the mutant group that had come to be known as the Acolytes.  
  
Swallowing hard, and leveling his gun at the mutant, Gary squeezed off several rounds. The bullets ricocheted harmlessly off him. Throwing the useless pistol to the ground, Gary dove behind his desk and came up grasping the AK-47 in his hands. A hail of bullets streaked through the air, and this time, although the bullets didn't manage to penetrate his armor, they did appear to be causing Colossus some mild pain.  
  
That's when another Acolyte (All of whom had remained perfectly still until now) seemed to disappear. The next thing Gary registered, was his gun being plucked from his hands. A barely noticeable blur slowed to a halt, and Quicksilver became visible standing next to Colossus, the AK-47 grasped firmly in his hands.  
  
The larger mutant took the gun and crushed it in his bare hands. While he was doing this, Quicksilver sped off again, moving from computer to computer, typing furiously. All of the people in the room, with the exception of Gary, knew what he was doing. And when he stopped around twenty seconds later with a disk in his hand, their suspicions were confirmed. Quicksilver had downloaded all the information on these computers onto that single disk..  
  
Another Acolyte, now recognizable as the one called Gambit, stepped calmly into the room, striding past the various scientists to the largest computer in the room. Placing his hands flat against the computer, he closed his eyes for just a moment. Seconds later the machine was glowing and crackling with energy.  
  
Quicksilver and Colossus joined the remaining two Acolytes in the hallway, followed closely by Gambit, who swiped a large paperweight off of one of the desks. Then exiting the room.  
  
He turned to the people in the room with a sympathetic look and said, "Sorry that we can't let you go. Nothin' personal. Just… bosses orders."  
  
With that he threw the paperweight full force at the charged up computer. The resulting explosion destroyed everything in the room, man and machine alike. Gary the guard's last thoughts were of how he wouldn't be getting that hot dinner after all.  
  
The Acolytes walked away from the fiery room with an air of success about them. The had gotten to that room without tripping a single alarm, and they had the information they had been sent to attain. Now that their presence had been made known, they would have to face security opposition that was slightly more threatening than a lone guard.  
  
Just as they stepped into a large storage room full of wooden crates containing various materials, a full squad of heavily armed men entered from the other end, spreading out an taking cover.  
  
"Give it up mutants," shouted their commander, "There's no way you can handle us all."  
  
"Ah, Remy begs to differ mon ami," he said in his thick Cajun accent, "And he's sure that the rest of the Acolytes would like to prove you wrong as well."  
  
It was almost like the room had exploded, the five mutants burst out in different directions, moving with practiced precision. The resulting battle was a blur of explosions, flames, claws, fists, and bullets. When the ruckus had ended and the fight was over, the five Acolytes were all still standing with barely three little scratched between them. The same however, could not be said about the twenty-some guards, who lay scattered across the ground, unconscious or worse.  
  
The mutants quickly continued out of the room. But before they could reach the door, something huge came bursting through the wall.  
  
"Shit," muttered Quicksilver as he beheld the one thing the Acolytes had hoped to avoid.  
  
It was a Sentinel.  
  
The Acolytes knew their chances of defeating this behemoth were slim to none, yet they prepared to fight it none the less. Five charged playing cards flew from Gambit's hand. They struck the Sentinels left leg and exploded with a force that the robot didn't even register.  
  
The small fire that resulted from the blast quickly began to grow and Pyro reached out and took control of it. The blaze began to swarm all over the Sentinel's leg and torso. The mechanical giant still paid no mind to the inferno that was sweeping across it. The robot's attention was focused solely on Quicksilver, who was dodging anything the Sentinel could try and hit him with.  
  
Before they had even begun this mission, the Acolytes had agreed that should they run into a Sentinel, they would focus their attacks on it's leg, hoping to bring it to the ground quickly. Colossus was taking the strategy to heart, pounding away at the mutant-hunter's lower leg, denting it as best he could. Sabertooth too was latched to their opponents leg, clawing away at wires, trying to rip out some important circuitry.   
  
Eventually the continued assault on it's leg caused the Sentinel to cease it's pursuit of Quicksilver, and instead focus on the other mutants. It swept it's hand downward, sending Sabertooth and Colossus flying into and through a nearby wall. Then it fired it's guns at Pyro. The Australian born mutant dove to the side, but smacked his head on the steel floor. Dazed for a moment, he lost control of the fire, and without him to feed it, the flames quickly burnt themselves out.  
  
The Sentinel lifted one large foot to crush Pyro, but before it could bring it's leg down, the robot screeched to a halt. Five large metal orbs crashed through the roof and slammed straight through the Sentinel, ripping it's body to shreds. The mechanized being swayed, no longer able to function, and then fell to the ground, causing a shock to go across the floor.  
  
The scattered mutants climbed shakily to their feet and approached their fallen foe. The five orbs floated out of it's metal carcass and landed before the Acolytes. They opened up to revel areas large enough to support the mutants. Each of them entered an orb, which closed firmly once they were inside. Lifted by an unseen force, the spheres rocketed off into the distance.  
  
Inside his orb, Pietro checked the disk, it was still fully intact. They had succeeded. Although some of them were a bit worse off then they were going into the battle, they were all still alive.  
  
Sitting in a darkened room, focusing on bringing his Acolytes home, Magneto smiled. Now he could have his revenge. On the X-Men, and on the world.  
  
Meanwhile, in a familiar mansion in Bayville, two people were engaged in a battle as well. This fight however, was a battle of wits, and no ones life was at stake here.  
  
Jean Grey surveyed the chess board that sat between her and her mentor, Professor Charles Xavier. Even though she knew that she would be able to feel the Professor entering her mind, she couldn't shake the feeling that he was listening in on her thoughts, getting a preemptive view of her strategies.  
  
The Professor wasn't reading Jean's mind, yet the way this game was going it sure seemed like he was. Using almost only pawns, the Professor had managed to leave Jean with only her King, a Knight, and three of her own pawns. The current plan going through his mind would have Jean checkmated next turn. Now he needed only for Jean to make her move.  
  
"Professor," came a gruff voice that could easily be identified as Logan's, "We have a visitor."  
  
Spinning his wheel chair around slowly the Professor saw Logan and another man, Nick Fury. He had dealt with Fury on a few other occasions, most of them ended with his X-Men being forced to battle some catastrophic evil. Needless to say, the Professor was not pleased to see him.  
  
"Checkmate."  
  
The Professor turned back to Jean for a moment to see that she had moved her knight to a position he hadn't noticed, and that it was indeed a checkmate.  
  
"Good move Jean. Now, if you would please go and find Scott and the others. I have the distinct feeling that Mr. Fury's visit will concern us all."  
  
"Alright," the redhead rose from her seat and walked off to find the others."  
  
"So, Agent Fury what brings you to the Institute?"  
  
Getting right down to business Fury started, "A government facility has been broken into. Several scientists and guards have been killed, and some very valuable data has been stolen."  
  
"I see," replied the Professor, "And why is it you come to us for help?"  
  
"Because one of the few surviving guards informed us that the ones who attacked us were the Acolytes."  
  
The Professor put a hand to his chin, "And I suppose you want us to get the data back for you?"  
  
"Yes, we do, because if Magneto has a chance to use the information he stole, then the whole world will be in danger."  
  
"Then tell me Agent Fury, what kind of information has been stolen?"  
  
"I'm afraid Professor, that I am not at liberty to discuss it. My superiors have forbidden it."  
  
"So you want us to go find the Acolytes and recover some information but you ain't even gonna tell us what kinda stuff were gonna be 'recovering'?" growled Logan, "Doesn't sound like a good plan."  
  
As Logan spoke, the Professor quickly tried to pry into Fury's mind. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head and was forced to pull his mind back.  
  
"I'm truly sorry about that Professor," said Fury and he lifted off the hat he had been wearing. Beneath it was a small metal device that was attached to Fury's head, "It's a psychic scrambler, it makes it impossible to see inside my head, and causes some mild shock to anyone who does."  
  
Suddenly a very sharp metal claw was placed only a centimeter from Fury's neck, "I don't think that was a good idea, bub."  
  
"Logan, calm down," voiced the Professor, "There is no need to injure him for taking precautions against my abilities."  
  
The claw retracted and Logan stepped back, though it was very clear that he was still tense. At that moment several more people, the senior members of the X-Men, entered the room, dressed in their various costumes.  
  
"Alright Fury, we'll do what we can," the Professor nodded to the agent, "Now if you don't mind, I would like to address my X-Men privately."  
  
"Thank you," said Fury, placing the hat back on his head and walking off.  
  
"Like, what's the problem Professor?" asked Shadowcat.  
  
"The Acolytes have stolen top secret government information, we have been tasked to retrieve it."  
  
"But Professor," Cyclops spoke up, "We don't even know where the Acolytes hide out is!"  
  
"I know Scott, so before we can come up with a plan of action, we must first find out where we will be attacking.  
  
"Kitty, go to the Brotherhood's house, see if they no anything. Jean and Rouge, accompany her incase they aren't willing to tell us. Maybe you can pry some information out of them."  
  
"The rest of you can go back to what you were doing, but be ready to go as soon as we find out what we need to know."  
  
As the X-Men left, Xavier looked out the window. What are you up to Magnus? 


End file.
